Weird synchrony stuff

[jason0618]

I have several cards with synchrony. Two weeks ago, they sent me an email that they lowered my limits on two of them. Care credit dropped from 2300 to 420 and the synchrony home one dropped from 10000, to 720.  I had 703 left on the home card from a 12 month no interest deal so it took me to 96% util. Care credit was a $0 balance.

My scores are improving montgly, util is consistently at about 6-8%.  I've not had a late payment in years. They left my other cards alone (for now) and discover just increased me recently from $1000 to $3000 so I know I'm doing things right. It's just kind of annoying. Maybe it's time to close the synchrony accounts since I have three decent credit cards. Discover it, capital one quicksilver and merrick bank double your line which will go to $2k in 2 more months. No setup or monthly fees. 

[Rudy1]

Looks like you were balanced chased! I don't know what other Synchrony cards you have but I am surprised to hear those were not touched. I wouldn't close them. I would use them with low spend and PIF. Then in a few months I would request a CLI on the ones you use the most and slowly get them all back. If you have a ton of SYNC cards and you don't need some of them then close those. Synchrony can be very good for utilization padding. I am carrying a around $800 balance on my Lowes card which has a $10000 CL for 0%. I love the card and it's good padding.

[coldfusion]

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@Rudy1 wrote:

Looks like you were balanced chased! I don't know what other Synchrony cards you have but I am surprised to hear those were not touched. I wouldn't close them. I would use them with low spend and PIF. Then in a few months I would request a CLI on the ones you use the most and slowly get them all back. If you have a ton of SYNC cards and you don't need some of them then close those. Synchrony can be very good for utilization padding. I am carrying a around $800 balance on my Lowes card which has a $10000 CL for 0%. I love the card and it's good padding.

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Keep in mind that excessive padding is one of the risk factors linked to suddenly discovering that Synchrony unilaterally closed all of one's cards held with them.  OP is clearly already on their radar as evidenced by the CLD on 2 cards so poking the bear needs to be done carefully for the near future.

[Rudy1]

That's very true. I totally agree that the OP should be careful with Synchrony. I am just saying that this is not the end of the line and that a CLD with Synchrony can be recovered from. I would advise the OP to pay off his Synchrony card's and put small spend on them.

[SoCalGardener]

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@Rudy1 wrote:

That's very true. I totally agree that the OP should be careful with Synchrony. I am just saying that this is not the end of the line and that a CLD with Synchrony can be recovered from. I would advise the OP to pay off his Synchrony card's and put small spend on them.

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From what I've read on these boards, I'm not so sure about that. It seems like once you're on Synchrony's radar, things only get worse, i.e., they close all your cards, not better. Perhaps the OP will be the exception.

[FinStar]

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@jason0618 wrote:

I have several cards with synchrony. Two weeks ago, they sent me an email that they lowered my limits on two of them. Care credit dropped from 2300 to 420 and the synchrony home one dropped from 10000, to 720.  I had 703 left on the home card from a 12 month no interest deal so it took me to 96% util. Care credit was a $0 balance.

My scores are improving montgly, util is consistently at about 6-8%.  I've not had a late payment in years. They left my other cards alone (for now) and discover just increased me recently from $1000 to $3000 so I know I'm doing things right. It's just kind of annoying. Maybe it's time to close the synchrony accounts since I have three decent credit cards. Discover it, capital one quicksilver and merrick bank double your line which will go to $2k in 2 more months. No setup or monthly fees. 

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On the bright side, they didn't close them all @jason0618! 😬

Thanks for sharing your DPs btw, albeit not a pleasant experience.  It sounds like they're mitigating their exposure based on your overall profile, reported income, VS4 trended data, etc.  While there's no disagreement about your on-time payments, history, etc., SYNCB is just tightening the purse strings. 

How many SYNCB accounts do you have in total? When was the last time you requested CLIs on all your SYNCB accounts and how frequently were you doing so?

[UncleB]

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@SoCalGardener wrote:

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@Rudy1 wrote:

That's very true. I totally agree that the OP should be careful with Synchrony. I am just saying that this is not the end of the line and that a CLD with Synchrony can be recovered from. I would advise the OP to pay off his Synchrony card's and put small spend on them.

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From what I've read on these boards, I'm not so sure about that. It seems like once you're on Synchrony's radar, things only get worse, i.e., they close all your cards, not better. Perhaps the OP will be the exception.

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I've posted more than once about how years ago during a financially perilous time my Lowe's card was balance chased to ~$500, and it's now at $20k.

Credit matters are often YMMV and underwriting is constantly changing, but a Synchrony CLD is definitely not impossible to recover from.

[jason0618]

I have an Amazon account, and a tire discounters card. Amazing is used a lot as my default card, but always pif, and the tire discounters one I used once for tires and since then, I've seen that it can be used as a gas station card, so I use it a few times a month for gas in my sequoia and pif.

I'm single. Household income is right at $160k if they were to ever ask so tightening their purse strings seems a little over cautious. At the end of the day, I don't need them so if they end up closing cards, no biggie. If I recover from it, also no big deal.

[Anonymous]

Oof. Never a good feeling to get balance chased or CLD. Synchrony is one of the issuers you have to be extremely mindful of. They are very proactive when it comes to exposure. Holiday season may have something to do with but UW changes daily. For me, with Comenity and SYNCB its pick 2 that you'll actually use and be happy. Padding/Seeking is too much of a rollercoaster with those issuers. A CLI is enough to put you on their radar.

[Rudy1]

While that is true Synchrony hasn't always done this I have been CLD by them in the past and I have gotten higher limits. Though you maybe right with Synchrony you can never really know.